Breaking the Ice

Presented in association with the Traverse Theatre this weeks A Play, A Pie and a Pint Breaking The Ice by Kieran Lynn is set in the Arctic and worth the watch. This topical farcical tale of treacherous bribery and corruption will have you in stitches from the outset. Meet Frank (Steven McNicoll) who has arrived to give a speech at the Arctic Council conference and the various characters, (Jimmy Chisholm and Nicola Roy) who between them play the hotel staff, an American marines, Russian delegate and a crazy weed selling shop worker and kidnaping duo. Never have I witnessed a door being used with such comical intent since Manwell and Basil got up to their shenanigans in Faulty towers.

This play has that level of humour mastery which comes with meticulous timing and funny accents. Chisholm transforms seamlessly from stiff upper lip bureaucrat to Yorkshire activist, Sami police chief to Russian professor of philosophy partial to toilet breaks mid sentence. Sound designer Andy Cowan has done a fine job making all the onomatopoeia pitch perfect throughout. Lighting designers Ross Kirkland/Chris Reilly make believable snow with a spinning disco ball.

Frank, newly appointed Foreign and Commonwealth Office Chief Scientific Advisor to the Arctic Council is here to cover for the advisor struck down with ultra violet hepatitis – that’s technical jargon for snow blindness – and delivers his speech in his dressing gown. But why does he only manage to deliver it to the hotel waitress rather than the world delegates? The answer to that is the very essence of the witty twisting plot that gets more and more bizarre as events unfold leaving you satisfied that you got more than your money’s worth of laughter from this gem of acting filled with an-acronyms that are so well written and performed you will find yourself howling at the daftness of human nature always trying to sound more intelligent and failing.

‘ I say, really that’s something isn’t it, almost makes me wish I was blind.’ pukka British delegate retorts to Frank’s obsession with his new tactile business cards. A superb offering that shouldn’t be missed.